OMG! I know that I'm a really bad writer for not uploading so long...but I just moved from Hong Kong to Canada so yeah...I had to deal with all the school transfering and finally, I get to go to school today.
Just a quick question: anyone living in Mississauga? Anyone going to John Fraser Secondary School? If you are able to answer me in either question, PM me...I don't wanna end up like strangers with my dear readers!
Thank you for waiting ever so patiently! Love you all :D Oh, and thanks for all the reviews everyone^^
~Samika
DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN PoT.
Time seemed to have stopped, with almost every pair of eyes looking at Ryoma and Sakuno. They all had a feeling that Ryoma might actually have a chance at winning…but what caught their attention was: had the tennis prodigy Echizen Ryoma also fallen for Ryuzaki Sakuno like many others had?
Ryoma smirked as he looked at Sakuno's shocked expression.
"Don't get me wrong. I'm not challenging you because I wanna ask you out like the others wanted. My motive is to get you to tell me why you hate tennis because I find that unacceptable. Besides, I have no time for relationships. Too time-consuming," Ryoma said.
Tomoka's eyes clouded with worry as she watched Sakuno grit her teeth and narrow her eyes. But behind all her anger she was just displaying to disguise herself on the outside, Tomoka knew too well that Sakuno's inward feelings could only be shown through her eyes, and right now, Ryuzaki Sakuno was hurt, hurt like she had just been slapped across her face. All this talk about tennis was too much for her. Any minute now, Tomoka thought that Sakuno might start tearing up.
But then again, being Ryuzaki Sakuno as she was, recovering wasn't much of a problem. Sakuno closed her eyes and opened them again to look at Ryoma straight in the eyes and smiled as though she had changed into a completely different person. This sudden change was what caught Echizen Ryoma off guard, and wiped his smirk off his face. What made Echizen Ryoma unpin Sakuno was when Sakuno shortened the distance between them until their noses were touching each other and he had to back away. He still had his personal space and she had invaded it. It was now Sakuno's turn to smirk at Ryoma.
"I accept."
"Hn."
"So…what do we bet on?" Ryoma smirked.
"You decide." Sakuno raised an eyebrow at Ryoma and snorted.
"My, my…aren't we getting cocky here? Out of all my other betters, you have the most confidence. You sure you want me to choose?" Sakuno asked. Ryoma remained smirking, not even having the thought of choosing himself come across his mind. Sakuno searched Ryoma's eyes and tried to discover maybe even a speck of fright or fear. To her surprise, all she found was determination.
He's dead serious…she thought. Sakuno exhaled and mentally massaged her nerves before she lost it and went on rampage in front of everyone. Then she gave Ryoma her sweetest smile.
"Then let's do something easy," she said and smirked, eyes full of mischief before continuing. "I'll ask you any ten questions,"
"Sure."
"But all these questions are related to one single topic: music. If you can get at least seven of them correct, you win…but if you only get six or less, I win, " Sakuno stated as she savoured the surprised look Ryoma had on his face.
Oh no…Tomoka thought. With Sakuno-chan's talent, there's no way Ryoma-sama could win!
Well, of course? Who, in the whole Seigaku (except for Ryoma) didn't know that Ryuzaki Sakuno was a piano prodigy and was as talented as Ryoma was in tennis…ten questions asked by Sakuno on music? How would Ryoma EVER win?
To everyone's surprise, Ryoma just smirked.
"Bring it."
"Ready?" Sakuno questioned.
"More than ever," Ryoma answered.
"First question: how many families of instruments are there and what are there names?" Sakuno asked as she smirked. How would guy like him be able to answer something like this? She thought proudly, never doubting whether her assumptions were right or not. Yet, within the next minute, Ryuzaki Sakuno tasted the bitterness of defeat for the second time today.
"Some say there are four and some say there are five: string, percussion, woodwind, brass and sometimes, keyboard is also considered another family of instruments," Ryoma said smoothly, not even flinching once. Sakuno fought hard to keep her surprise suppressed, as she had to admit that she had underestimated the musical knowledge of the guy standing right in front of her. But she quickly regained her calm posture: after all, she had been going easy on him.
Tomoka got even more worried when she saw Sakuno's eyes full of mischief.
Uh-oh…this isn't looking good…she thought but did nothing since she knew that no one could interfere with Sakuno and her bets. All these years, Tomoka could only stand by one side and look at Sakuno ruin herself as she'd break down piece by piece every day because of a huge mistake Tomoka had made in the past. But was Tomoka the one to blame? They were so young back then! How would Tomoka ever have known that she herself would be the one to ruin the life of her best friend whom she loved more than herself? So…it wasn't entirely her fault, right?
Tomoka pinched and mentally slapped herself back into reality and the truth that was definite: she was a murderer and nothing could change the fact that she was also the wrecker of her best friend's life. And there was nothing she could do to save Sakuno except for having faith in Echizen Ryoma and believing that he really could change Sakuno.
"Second question: what is a string quartet?" Sakuno asked cunningly. She was sure the tennis prodigy wouldn't know the answer to this one. But still, he surprised her.
"A string quartet…can have two meanings: one, it's sort of a mini orchestra that consists of two violins, one viola and one cello. Two, it's a music piece written especially for this group of instruments to play," Ryoma replied coolly. Sakuno nearly screamed when Ryoma gave her the correct answer. She balled her fists so hard her knuckles were white.
"Third question: give me three composers from the 20th century and from each of their composers, one of their own pieces," Sakuno said, almost shouting. Her eyes were narrowed as she stared at Ryoma to which he returned.
"Don't you think you're going a little too hard on me?" he asked, grinning. Sakuno smiled.
"We never said I couldn't ask questions like these…we said that as long as the questions were about music, they'd be fine. Now hurry up and answer the question," Sakuno replied. Ryoma simply sighed.
"First composer: Debussy, who composed the piano piece "Dream", as known as "Rêverie" in French. Second composer: Stravinsky, who composed the orchestral ballet piece "Firebird". And the third composer…hmm…" Ryoma thought as he looked around him. Sakuno smirked.
Is he stuck? She thought happily, smiling even brighter. Unluckily, her smile just got wiped off the second Ryoma smirked at her.
"Ah…I think it was…Rachmaninoff? And his piece was…Prelude in C Sharp Minor…right?" Ryoma asked, not even trying to hide his smirk when he saw Sakuno flushed.
He's having fun seeing me get all beat…well! I'm not going to give it to him! Sakuno thought as she quickly came up with another question, trying to throw the tennis prodigy off guard, but to no avail.
"Right…so number four…Why is the treble clef also called the G clef?"
"That's simple: the spiral on one of the ends of the treble clef revolves around the G note line in treble clef, which gives it the name, "G" clef," Ryoma said. Sakuno mentally screamed – no one had ever been able to answer her that question before.
"Fine, then for number five, I'll just ask you a similar one: why's the bass clef also called the F clef?"
"Your questions seem to get even easier by the second: it's because the two dots of the bass clef are on either side of the F line in the bass clef, also giving it the name, "F" clef," Ryoma said. Sakuno studied Ryoma's facial expression. She couldn't read whether he was amused or was he having a hard time. Just where did all this music knowledge come from? She closed her eyes and she felt them start to hurt from all the intense stares she had been continuously giving Ryoma. Damn, he had wiped off so many smiles from her face today!
But…just who knew that the next question would finally bring a permanent smile to her face?
"Where were we? Oh right, number 6…when Beethoven was young, he always wasted no time in practicing the piano. When his fingers started to hurt because he practiced too much, what did he do to help relax the pain?" Sakuno asked, finally coming up with the idea of testing him on little bits and pieces of habits some famous composers had.
Silence sang loudly as Ryoma and Sakuno stood there, facing each other, neither blinking.
Ryoma didn't show it but he didn't know the answer to this one…what kind of a method would a person who practices piano 24/7 use to soothe his fingers? Ryoma thought about what he would do if his fingers hurt from practicing tennis too long from when he was a kid…
"Ummm…put it into warm water?" Ryoma replied, unsure, yet he knew his answer was wrong when he saw Sakuno smiled.
"Nah…quite the opposite. He'd place his fingers into a bucket of ice water which he'd put beside his piano," Sakuno replied cheerfully.
"Hn."
"Question number 7: define this German expression – Mässig, mit Ausdruck," Sakuno ordered.
"How am I supposed to answer that?" Ryoma snapped back.
"Do not answer my questions with another question," Sakuno replied. Ryoma stared and stared. He sighed when he realized his staring would get him nowhere. He mentally went through everything he knew about German but couldn't come across anything that was even similar to the expression Sakuno asked him to define. He mentally sighed in defeat.
I'll just have to go with this one…
"Moderate…with angst?" he guessed. He didn't miss the flinch Sakuno tried not to show.
"Close…but not quite…it should've been with expression. Nice try though," Sakuno said.
"So do I get a half point?"
"Nope. Now, onto number 8: what do pieces that are called "Arabesques" usually refer to?" Sakuno started to have the feeling that she would eventually be the winner of this bet, as she always was.
"Arabic music?" Ryoma replied, not even thinking because he knew he wouldn't be able to win this time; but he was planning to come back next time, completely prepared to defeat Ryuzaki Sakuno at any cost.
"Nice try…but not even close. Arabesques actually have nothing to do Arab music. It is, however, usually a piano piece consisting of melodies that describe the atmosphere of Arabic architecture," Sakuno smiled in her victory again.
"Well, guess what? We're on number 9 already! Alright…what are the differences between mano destra and mano sinistra?" Sakuno asked, wanting to let the Echizen ONLY have six correct, therefore asking him the easiest question she could think of.
"One means right hand and the other means left hand," Ryoma answered coolly. He had a feeling that he was being played by Sakuno but he didn't flinch when he saw Sakuno smile sweetly. He had come unprepared but he would try again next time and again and again until Sakuno would admit defeat. Ryoma didn't know where all this motivation to help Sakuno came from but he just had a surging urge to bring her into the world of tennis.
"Finally, last but not least…the last question: what's the difference between an appoggiatura and an acciaccatura? And don't tell me they have different spellings. I want to know the musical difference," Sakuno asked and stated her condition before Ryoma could answer the easiest thing he could think of. Ryoma frowned slight, just slightly, but Sakuno didn't miss it and smiled even brighter.
"One's slower than the other?" Ryoma answered. Sakuno let out a laugh.
"Did you get these two mixed with andante and adagio? Nope, appoggiatura and acciaccatura are both ornaments, and the difference between the two is an acciaccatura is more of a short appoggiatura. There, that marks it all. You got six correct, but I said the condition was seven…well, I guess that means you lost. Now if you'll excuse me, I'll be headed back to class before I get late now! See ya!" Sakuno asked as she started to head towards the school building. Murmurs arose in the crowd but slowly quieted down as they started to leave and head back to their classrooms as well. However, the tennis prodigy once again, successfully caught their attention.
Ryoma ran towards the direction Sakuno had walked in, caught her by the arm and spun her around, wide-eyed. Tomoka dropped her bento and the crowd stopped in their tracks, sensing that the show wasn't over yet.
"Ryuzaki," Ryoma called out her name softly. It wasn't gentle, but it wasn't his usual rough tone either. Sakuno flinched as the tone Ryoma used reminded her of her father. What he did next shocked her even more.
Ryoma reached into his pocket, took out a tennis ball and put it into Sakuno's hand.
"What's the meaning of this?" Sakuno asked, remembering this was an action her father had once done to her.
"Just keep it, I have so many at home anyways," Ryoma said. Sakuno looked at the ball, then at Ryoma and then back. She smiled and closed her eyes. Then she shook off Ryoma's arm and headed towards her classroom again, at which she halted to a stop when she heard him speak again.
"I don't like losing by the way. I'll be back again," Ryoma yelled after her. Sakuno just stood there, her back facing him and most of the crowd. Then she slowly turned around.
"I'll be looking forward to how you do next time then…Ryoma-kun," she said. Sakuno smiled again, and with that, she ran towards her classroom, ignoring Tomoka's calls. Tomoka stopped in her tracks and turned around to face her idol.
"Ryoma-sama, arigato! You've opened her heart a little already…I know you can do this! Thank you for everything you've done!" Tomoka said and just like Sakuno did, she pivoted and ran towards her classroom.
Ryoma stuffed his hands into his pocket again and looked up into the sky. He smiled to himself, knowing what Tomoka said had been true…since Sakuno addressed him by his first name. Still smiling, he proceeded to his own classroom.
I've never heard her call any other guy by their first name…perhaps I'm the first?
Out in the shadows, a tall figure stood, watching the boy. He had witnessed the entire show and he wasn't happy. No, he wasn't…and he wasn't about to hand Sakuno over to some arrogant brat either.